johnandlucie

Five World Heritage Sites in Barcelona

“Modernista” is Catalonia’s own version of the Art Nouveau architectural movement that swept through Europe between 1880 and 1910. In the city of Barcelona, the movement was energized by the Catalan cultural revival of that period and it reached its peak between 1888 and 1906.

Modernism inspired the design of hundreds of remarkable buildings and sites, interior decorations, sculptures, and streetlights throughout the city and beyond.

The designs integrate metal, concrete, coloured glass, tiles, and mosaics and make generous use of sinuous and arching lines, colours, symbols, and more than a touch of the architects’ playfulness and fantasy. Most importantly, both the interior and exterior forms and decorations take their inspiration from what the architects had observed in the natural world.

This architectural heritage is one of the tourist draws to Barcelona. The brochure describing the Barcelona Modernisme Route lists 115 examples of Modernista architecture in the city. Nine of those places, designed by either Antoni Gaudí or Lluís Domènech i Montaner, have been designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.

We recently visited five of these designated sites. They are all magnets for tourists and, at times, it was difficult to capture images without having a crowd of people taking selfies all around us. Despite this, we are pleased to share some of our moments of wonder with you.

Lively Barcelona

Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, really came to the world’s attention when it hosted the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. Since then, the city has attracted an ever-increasing number of visitors, especially during the summer months. With a population of just over 1.6 million, Barcelona had a total of 9.7 million visitors in 2022.

With the availability of cheap flights from many other European cities, it has become a favourite destination for a short break. In addition, numerous cruise ships make a stop there. While tourism has brought tangible economic benefits, overtourism has led to some locals feeling crowded-out in their own city.

We had bought a guidebook on Barcelona in 2003, had watched many documentaries and knew that we would like to visit, but never did. We had some unease about the city being thronged with visitors and were reticent to add to the overtourism problem. That is what has kept us from going back to Venice, a city we love, but that also suffers from being too popular.

Our mindset changed this past year. We came to the realization that there is no sense in delaying the good things until it is too late. Knowing that there were fewer visitors in Barcelona during the winter, we bought a new guidebook and booked flights and a hotel.

We soon realized we should not have procrastinated for so long. We had a wonderful time. The sun shone every day and, like so many before us, we fell in love with this wonderful city.

Awesome Central Park

Even if you have never visited Central Park in New York City, you may be able to see it in your mind’s eye. Its extensive lawns, winding paths, rustic bridges, rock outcrops, ponds and lakes, all surrounded by towering skyscrapers, have featured in hundreds of popular films. Central Park not the largest park in NYC, however, it is iconic: an impressive public green space covering 843 acres right in the middle of Manhattan.

The park’s visionary architects, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, succeeded in creating a public expanse where people can roam and mingle while marveling at the beauty of the natural world. When it opened in 1858, it was the first public landscaped park in the U.S. Today, it gets more than forty million visitors every year, many of whom live or work locally.

We have visited Central Park several times over the years. Following our last visit, in November, we were curious to find out more about the history of the park. As it turns out, the very creation of Central Park and the fact that it has retained, to this day, most of the features of the architects’ original proposal, are nothing short of astonishing.

Looking back on a year of blogging

An article in the Globe and Mail newspaper caught our attention last week. It was titled “Buying time: Slow grocery checkouts boost connection in a hurried world.” The article described the introduction of a “slow lane” checkout in a grocery store in Red Deer, Alberta. The goal was to give older, lonely or anxious people an opportunity to connect with another person in a meaningful way while engaging in one of the most basic activities of everyday life.

This innovation, which seems counterintuitive in the era of self-checkouts, was first introduced in a Dutch supermarket in 2019. Since then, similar initiatives have sprouted in Edmonton, Alberta and in some cities in Britain and Japan. The article concluded: “Hopefully, we can make people feel good and maybe the community will get a little bit better because people are happier.”

The article made us smile, given that we had chosen Slow Lane Musings as a title for this blog. Our blog was launched in December 2022, and we thought it may be timely, if you would indulge us, to share a few thoughts about our experience with it as the year comes to a close.

The call of the sea

Imagine yourself, on a sunny day, sitting comfortably on a chair, a bench or a rock, with a gentle sea breeze blowing toward you. You are looking out to the horizon where the blue sea meets the blue sky, listening to the waves lapping on the sand or the rugged shore below you. You may start to feel relaxed and happy, just remembering and visualizing an experience you had of being by the sea.

Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, an American scientist and marine biologist coined the expression “blue mind” to describe that feeling of calm and general happiness triggered by the “dreamy state of involuntary attention” that is experienced beside the water.

Many years ago, when we lived in Ireland, we were never more than a short drive away from the sea. We went there often, sometimes just for an evening stroll on the beach. Where we are now, we have access to lovely lakes and rivers, and we are grateful for them. But there is something magical and enticing about the open sea.

Walking through history

When we visit a new city or town, we often walk by an interesting building that stands out from its surroundings. Sometimes, there is a plaque that identifies it as a “historical building.” If we are lucky, the plaque says a little bit more about its history or which famous person once lived there. There is rarely sufficient contextual information to capture our attention for very long. The background history is available somewhere, no doubt, if we had the time or the interest to look for it.

We visited many cities and towns in Maine for the first time this summer. Of those, three stand out in our minds: Augusta, Biddeford, and Wiscasset. This is because, in those locations, we were treated to a new and enjoyable experience called The Museum in the Streets. We found it by chance because it was not mentioned in our guidebook.

The Museum in the Streets is an innovative and permanent public installation along a designated heritage walk. Each town’s local history is brought to life through large, illustrated, and instructive panels. We had to find out more…